1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a developer for developing an electrostatic latent image, a developer cartridge for developing an electrostatic latent image, a process cartridge and an image formation apparatus.
2. Related Art
Methods of visualizing image information through an electrostatic latent image, such as electrophotography, have been used in various fields. In electrophotography, an electrostatic latent image formed on a photoreceptor by charging and exposing is developed with a developer containing a toner, and then is subjected to transferring and fixing to be finally visualized.
Developers that are used in development include a two-component developer containing a toner and a carrier, and a one-component developer which uses a toner alone, such as a magnetic toner. The two-component developer, in which the carrier performs a portion of the functions of the developer including stirring, conveyance and electrical charging, is functionally segregated as a developer. Accordingly, the two-component developer has features such as being highly controllable and thus is currently widely used.
Image formation based on a conventional electrophotographic method employs a toner containing a colorant. Use of a transparent toner upon image formation has been known in order to obtain images having higher glossiness. For a transparent toner for electrostatic latent image development, it is required that transparent images formed by using the transparent toner have high transparency. However, because binder resins used in such a toner are also actually colored to some extent, the “transparent images” may not be completely transparent but rather have a slightly yellowish tinge, which may result in subtle changes in the color hue of the images. A technique including incorporating a colorant having an opposite color to make the yellowish tinge unnoticeable may be considered as the technique for correcting the yellowish tinge. However, since the colorant to be used for this purpose is used in a fairly trace amount, when the colorant is incorporated into the toner, there may be cases in which the adjustment of the amount of the colorant may be difficult, or there are irregularities from one toner to another.